This time I held my wet plate workshop in Vienna in the Kunstfabrik (the translation would mean art factory). This is a place for artists, where you can book painting workshops and other master classes. As you can imagine, this is also the right place to hold a wet plate workshop.

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There was lots of space at the Kunstfabrik, beside of the darkroom, we had our own room for pouring the plates and also a large hall for shooting our portraits. It was so much fun to work with all participants and we also created some great portraits. Congrats to all of you for that. This time I show you another side of the Workshop in the following video, after that you get an Idea how much fun we had.
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The idea for that was born pretty early but it took me a very long time to make it.
In the video you can watch my journey from buying to renovating and finishing the nearly 100 year old camera. After that you can enjoy the behind the scenes of the wet plate collodion shooting. Even these are small plates, I had to use sometimes 6000-7000 Wats of Hensel strobe power to get enough light thru the grided softbox. Finally I can be more creative during a wet plate shoot (double exposure for example) The mixture of new and old materials during the renovation fits really good to the Steampunk themed shoot. Enjoy the video and the gallery.

Makeup artist – that’s when a lot of people think about makeup and hairstyling.
Sure, that’s the reason why I book them, but there is also another reason that is even as important as that. Communication is the key during every portrait shooting. I call it “build them up”
You can read soon more about that topic in the c’t Digitale-Fotografie magazine

Why not do some Halloween Wet Plates – sure!
A Skull – A Mask and a Walter White “Heisenberg” (Bryan Cranston) themed Plate inspired from the TV Show Breaking Bad. I feel always like him when I prepare the chemicals for my collodion wet plate process. This is the first time, I combined this self-portrait with a 360-degree camera for the making-of video.
Combining hi-tech with a 160 year old process is fun 🙂

Thanks again to Alex for the support during this shoot!

My self-portrait is pretty dirty on the borders of the plate as you can see. I achieved that with “not cleaning” the edges of the plates after the silver bath and not cleaning the plate holder. I think this makes this plate even more unique – it’s not all the time about perfection.
Beside this, I love the sharpness and the depth of field of that Dallmeyer Petzval 2B lens from about 1860 (its a 210mm F 3.5). This fast lens is also the reason my 6000 Watts Hensel Tria generator only runs on half power, even I used a softbox.
The palte has a ISO like sensitivity from about 0.5!

If you guys want to experience yourself how a tintype is made and own a one of a kind wet plate, please contact me via my website http://zeitreise.jetzt
I do workshops too so you can build your own tintype.

The Hot rod on Fire Shooting inspired me to this one. But there was a huge difference, this photograph was done with only one exposure. We got it done after a lot of preparation – a nearly 3-Meter-long diy fire torch, two strobes and a 4.4 Seconds exposure created this image.

Planning did take this time much longer, because we had to build a small pond including a platform for the reflection. Additionally, I had to cut down some branches from a tree to get enough space.
First of all thanks to the fire departnemnt Muckendorf- Wipfing for the heat-proof suit. My shopping list was huge, from odorless lamp oil (thanks a lot to the Facebook group Feuerspucker und Feuerkünstler for all the information), to a cooking pot, an aluminum bar, carabiners, chains, damp sheets, till a pool liner and much more.

I love taking lots of time for just one photograph. I’m sure that comes from my wet plate photography. The moment when you see everything worked out like you imagined after the shooting is priceless.

I used again the 35mm lens and my Canon 5D. I started with only one strobe, but had to add a second one later to get a better light on the wedding couple.

Safety first, because of that we did a lot of precautions before the shooting, to moisten the whole backyard for example. Beside of that, it is helpful to have many helping hands. Thanks to Alex, Wolfgang and Sebastian for that! Also, a big thanks to Veronika and Andreas for your patience. In exchange for that you got a unique photograph and a memory you will remember.